This Old House
by WindowChild
Summary: Pre-Luke, Thalia deals with her mother's latest drinking spell. Told as a 25-word prompt. Written for the Percy Jackson Fanfiction Olympics!


A/N: First of all, this fic is for the Fanfiction Olympics! Thanks so much to the judges: Powerofwords12, Karmabear2050 and Stef.23, for letting me participate! This was a lot of fun to write!

Anyway, this is a fic that's a bit different from anything I've done before. It's a 25 prompt - which I have done -, but the prompts work together to tell a story. And since it wasn't an official fifty prompt fic, I cheated and wrote more than one sentence.

Thanks for clicking on it! Reviews will be replied to with love and appreciation.

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1. Hospitality

Her school bag fell to the floor with a boom, its contents spilling across the floor. Thalia barely noticed; her eyes drank in the site of her _home _with disbelief. Had a monster devoured their living room, or merely the beast of her mother? She shook her head, remembering something. Didn't the Greeks have a philosophy for hospitality*, or something? Well, screw guests, this place wasn't fit for _them. _

2. Damp

She swiped a soiled dishrag from the counter, and began work on a puddle. The floor panels rotted under the water, crumbling under abuse, and Thalia tried to ignore the moisture on her own face.

3. Blinding

With a furious tug to the rope, she tugged the curtains shut. Tattered and frayed, unimaginably hideous, at least they kept the sun from her eyes. Besides, what would the neighbors think? They would start asking questions, questions about things that Thalia didn't understand.

4. Imaginary

As always, when she cleaned up from these nights, she pretended she had company. A pretend friend stood by her side, guarding the door. Sometimes, in her weakest moments she wished for a boy as a friend. After all, she had reached that age. Boys occupied much of her mind.

5. Troublesome

For all its help, money often meant a bad night or two. It enabled her mother to purchase alcohol, and that signified trouble. The alcohol forewarned of the rampage on their house, on her mother's loss of self-control.

6. Headphones

Music soothed better than imagination, with its complete detachment, but her headphones had snapped the day before. Her heat ached, as she realized she might not be able to afford new ones. No more rhyming words to drive away the sound of gagging in the bathroom.

7. Soap

They'd run out of chemicals weeks ago: soap, bleach, detergent. Trying to ignore the pressure in her chest, Thalia couldn't sanitize her own hands. She'd have to wait for school tomorrow, and by then they would reek.

8. Muffin

Crumbs lay on the table, attracting an army of ants. Thalia blinked at the muffin's debris, wondering why her mom never bought her any sort of food. In response, she lashed out at the ants, her heel flattening them against the floor.

9. Autumn

As she collected up the muffin's insides - with her fingers, since they had no napkins - she tried to remember the last time she'd felt happy. It took some searching, but then she remembered: Halloween, when she'd gone trick-or-treating with a friend. No monsters chasing her, no mother to ruin to her life. One great night.

10. Doorknob

The bathroom door twitched ominously, and Thalia froze. She never liked to see her mother after a drinking spell; it always made things worse. When clean and sober, Thalia's mother _could _be quite sweet. And seeing her now would only spoil the illusion of improvement.

11. Radiant

Thankfully, the would stuck tightly against its frame. She didn't have to see her mother; she could picture the way she'd once been, instead. In Thalia mind, her mother had once been beautiful. She wore expensive jewelry, her heart as hard to catch as light. That's how Thalia remembered it.

12. Blanket

She tossed the afghan from the couch, her pinky slipping through a tear, and didn't bother to fold it. The last time she'd folded anything, it had been her favorite baby blanket; since then, her mom accidentally ripped it to shreds. No more folding.

13. Frozen

The heater no longer worked, due to unpaid bills, but Thalia stopped noticing months ago. At first though, she'd been sure hell felt this way. All ice and vomit, threatening to drown you; she shuddered.

14. Piano

Now she wished even harder for her walkman; for any kind of music. Her friend Maria played piano. Thalia wondered if, distantly, in another world, she could learn it herself.

15. Watermelon

Of course, wondering was dangerous. It led to deeper hopes that left you sorry later. Thalia dreamed of picnics: watermelon in the backyard, barbecuing hamburgers. The picture, so green and beautiful, faded before it could fully materialize.

16. Lithe

The couch's springs gave way to her weight, flexible for her small frame. She leaned her head against its torn back, wishing she could go to sleep. She couldn't though, not yet. There was work to be done, and if she didn't do it, who would?

17. Fishy

Sitting still, she began to smell it: a thick, toxic odor of garbage and red wine.

18. Pomegranate

A row of checkers sat splayed across the coffee table, their plastic still shiny. Dazed in her efforts, emotional and worn, Thalia wondered absently if they had sweet juice inside.

19. Immortal

Her black hair hung in limp tangles, a visible token of her struggles at home. Sometimes, at her worst, she thought about suicide. After all, what good was life if you hated living it?

20. Title

If not death, then she'd settle for any other escape. She would settle for a life – any life – that wasn't here. In the buried annals of her mind, she felt sure she'd get it someday. She would earn a new name: something other than Thalia Grace, the drunkard's daughter.

21. Soup

She rose on shaky legs, her body moving itself in hunger. In the pantry, she found a lone can of minestrone soup, covered in dust. Seeing her lack of options, she opened the lid with a sniff of distaste.

22. Prayer

Once in a while, when things got really bad – worse than this - she would pray. Her prayers were never directed to anyone in particular, as she didn't know what she believed in, but she just hoped that someone somewhere might hear her desperation.

23. Rainbow

Her shaking hand drew the soupspoon to her mouth, and she swallowed with a grimace. She scowled at the wall for a while, until she noticed the patterns of color. She'd seen them before, as every child has, but for some reason it brought a sob to her throat. She nearly choked, trying to remember a time when things had felt better.

24. Destiny

Had she done something wrong? Was this her fate, to stay here with her mother? She didn't know, and sitting in their battered living room, she found she didn't care. All she wanted was a different life; she would even give up the answers she'd waited so patiently for, if it meant she could leave forever.

25. Magic

Sometimes though, she couldn't believe. It had just been too many years of this, and her mind longed for cynicism. She realized, fixing her tear-filled eyes on the wall, that you couldn't go back. Once you lost your faith, your love for the fantastic, you couldn't bring it back again. She saw no magic. She only saw more nights like this one, stuck in a world she couldn't fix.

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A/N: * I footnoted that line so you could see what I was talking about, if you didn't understand. Here's an article on it (the Greek concept of hospitality); it's called Xenia. .org/wiki/Xenia_(Greek

I originally planned to do all 50 prompts, but the story got a bit long. Anyway, many thanks for reading! : ) Please review!


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